True, looking back now, even as a six or seven year old kid I can remember thinking that it didn't make sense that the Alphans weren't seen adapting alien technology they discovered or that was left behind to fit their needs. I think some of that has been retconned so that fans believe the laser batteries mounted on the moon surface, to take one example, to be fashioned from bits of alien spacecraft.
Revisiting Space: 1999...
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
"The Bringers Of Wonder" (Part 1) **
"The Bringers Of Wonder" (Part 2) **
A FTL rescue ship arrives from Earth only it's not what Koenig sees.
In more deft hands this could have been a decent episode, but it's handled here in such a sloppy and lazy manner. It's also terribly padded---it could easily have been told more effectively within the framework of one episode. Sadly this collection of episodes is living down to all the hoary cliches of bad '70's era sci-fi. Instead of a mild reboot that could have addressed some missteps of Season 1 and built on what had worked before they chose to pander to the lowest expectations.
Pity because this episode has a nice sounding title.
"The Bringers Of Wonder" (Part 2) **
A FTL rescue ship arrives from Earth only it's not what Koenig sees.
In more deft hands this could have been a decent episode, but it's handled here in such a sloppy and lazy manner. It's also terribly padded---it could easily have been told more effectively within the framework of one episode. Sadly this collection of episodes is living down to all the hoary cliches of bad '70's era sci-fi. Instead of a mild reboot that could have addressed some missteps of Season 1 and built on what had worked before they chose to pander to the lowest expectations.
Pity because this episode has a nice sounding title.
This two-parter was my first exposure to 1999. I watched a VHS tape of the overseas movie that was edited together from this two parter, DESTINATION: MOONBASE ALPHA.
“The Lambda Factor” *
An unknown phenomenon causes widespread malfunctions, irritability and heightened telekinetic powers in a young Alphan woman.
This plays out something like Gary Mitchell's experience in Star Trek's "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in the sense of unlimited power corrupting someone's baser impulses. In this case it's a young woman who lashes out at anyone who annoys her. The difference between Trek's version and 1999's is a matter of execution. Trek's was done with subtlety and nuance for the most part while 1999's was...not so much.
At this point there are only five episodes left and it doesn't look promising. Season 1 only had five outright Bad episodes and another six Poor ones. The rest were Fair to Good with one Excellent. Series 2 has only three or four Fair episodes and the rest are Poor to Bad, with a lot of Bad.
If someone were to ask me I'd say watch Season 1 and don't waste time with Season or Series 2. It's a huge letdown and a real disservice to the earlier season as a whole.
An unknown phenomenon causes widespread malfunctions, irritability and heightened telekinetic powers in a young Alphan woman.
This plays out something like Gary Mitchell's experience in Star Trek's "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in the sense of unlimited power corrupting someone's baser impulses. In this case it's a young woman who lashes out at anyone who annoys her. The difference between Trek's version and 1999's is a matter of execution. Trek's was done with subtlety and nuance for the most part while 1999's was...not so much.At this point there are only five episodes left and it doesn't look promising. Season 1 only had five outright Bad episodes and another six Poor ones. The rest were Fair to Good with one Excellent. Series 2 has only three or four Fair episodes and the rest are Poor to Bad, with a lot of Bad.
If someone were to ask me I'd say watch Season 1 and don't waste time with Season or Series 2. It's a huge letdown and a real disservice to the earlier season as a whole.
At this point, I recommend finishing it out. I thought most of the last few episodes were among the better ones of year two.
Oh, I will finish them off out of completeness and fairness.
I did take a peak at content on the bonus disc where I watched "Message From Moonbase Alpha" depicting Sandra's last message from Alpha directed towards Earth set some twenty years after beginning their odyssey. It certainly felt more like a first season effort and was a fitting final instalment. And it still left several years open to speculation regarding other adventures. She does make reference to past characters in such a way that acknowledges some of the first season cast missing from the second---a nice touch and a bit moving.
I seem to remember that I kind of liked the last episode "The Dorcons" but I'll admit that it has been awhile since I watched season 2.
I hope it's better than the title suggests because most of this season seems to have been written and produced by dorks. Seriously a lot of the writing in this season comes across like bad fanfic.
“The Seance Spectre” *
A group of Alphans is convinced a habitable planet exists in the middle of a dust cloud directly in Alpha's path.
A group of Alpha personnel hold seances and are convinced Koenig is hiding the truth of a habitable planet near at hand. Uh...yeah. Alphan security guards also appear to be some of the most ineffective I've ever see, but that seems to be true about a lot of security personnel in a lot of SF shows.
Instead of one big blast to divert the Moon how about two smaller ones? No?
Doesn't really matter...
“Dorzak” ***
Maya believes a fellow Psychon held prisoner is actually innocent.
It isn't that I think this is good, but it is a refreshing change after a string of truly disappointing episodes. The idea here was to make a situation look other than how it's presented only to find it really is as initially presented. The end result is something watchable even if somewhat predictable.
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I tried to watch this last year and gave up after pilot. Maybe your reviews can convince me otherwise
This is a great show from '70's.
I tried to watch this last year and gave up after pilot. Maybe your reviews can convince me otherwise
This is a great show from '70's.
Agree, this is a great show from the '7
s which I was fortunate enough to have experienced first-run in 1975-1977 as a boy.
Even when I was a kid I thought it amusing that talking plants were calling John and Maya "cannibals".I find The Rules of Luton highly entertaining.
It's like Arena with talking trees.
"Devil's Planet" ***
Koenig is stranded and held captive on a penal planetoid.
I could almost give this a 4 rating and it might be the best episode of the second season so far. Koenig is the only regular cast member seen, but it doesn't matter. They choose to get edgy and even a touch dark and appropriately sadistic in this and it pays off. There's no real goofiness to be seen and overall it's more like a first season story. It's marred by only a few things.
Firstly, the costuming was too bright and wasn't convincing for prison guards. Secondly, it really needed a more appropriate soundtrack. The music used here is just bad and ill-suited for such a story. That could be said of the whole second season, but it really shows here.
Damn. Would that more of the episodes had been like this in this season.
"The Immunity Syndrome" ****
An idyllic planet starts to turn into a nightmare.
Well what do you know, I finally hit a Good one this season. My gripes would be nitpicks. This really had me guessing for quite a bit wondering what the hell was going on. I like that if it's done in a good way.
The ending isn't quite what I thought it most likely was. I felt it was the planet itself that had some sort of collective sentience that was treating outsiders like an infection. But the ending makes it seem like it was a separate being. No matter, it's still a big step up from this season's norm.
Koenig is stranded and held captive on a penal planetoid.
I could almost give this a 4 rating and it might be the best episode of the second season so far. Koenig is the only regular cast member seen, but it doesn't matter. They choose to get edgy and even a touch dark and appropriately sadistic in this and it pays off. There's no real goofiness to be seen and overall it's more like a first season story. It's marred by only a few things.
Firstly, the costuming was too bright and wasn't convincing for prison guards. Secondly, it really needed a more appropriate soundtrack. The music used here is just bad and ill-suited for such a story. That could be said of the whole second season, but it really shows here.
Damn. Would that more of the episodes had been like this in this season.
"The Immunity Syndrome" ****
An idyllic planet starts to turn into a nightmare.
Well what do you know, I finally hit a Good one this season. My gripes would be nitpicks. This really had me guessing for quite a bit wondering what the hell was going on. I like that if it's done in a good way.
The ending isn't quite what I thought it most likely was. I felt it was the planet itself that had some sort of collective sentience that was treating outsiders like an infection. But the ending makes it seem like it was a separate being. No matter, it's still a big step up from this season's norm.
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I had the same thought initially, but it's quite different from Trek's version.
Try to watch a not-english scifi show for your next marathon, like "Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion"!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raumpatrouille_–_Die_phantastischen_Abenteuer_des_Raumschiffes_Orion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raumpatrouille_–_Die_phantastischen_Abenteuer_des_Raumschiffes_Orion
"The Dorcons" ***
An alien race demands Alpha surrender Maya to them.
The series ends, not exactly on a high not but not on a poor one either. Actually there were some pretty dark aspects to this. An entire race sees nothing morally wrong with hunting done another intelligent species just to harvest them for their own special purposes. I admit the idea creeped me out. The alien ship was also a cool design and didn't look like a kit bash.
There was some high tech on display in the hands of the Dorcons. All told I was glad to see some good ideas evident here because initially the episode title sounded really stupid... Actually it still does.
I liked this episode overall, but I hedge on rating it higher because I think it could have been better.
An alien race demands Alpha surrender Maya to them.
The series ends, not exactly on a high not but not on a poor one either. Actually there were some pretty dark aspects to this. An entire race sees nothing morally wrong with hunting done another intelligent species just to harvest them for their own special purposes. I admit the idea creeped me out. The alien ship was also a cool design and didn't look like a kit bash.
There was some high tech on display in the hands of the Dorcons. All told I was glad to see some good ideas evident here because initially the episode title sounded really stupid... Actually it still does.
I liked this episode overall, but I hedge on rating it higher because I think it could have been better.
Excellent ***** (0%) - When criticisms are a matter of nitpicking then it means you got most of the important stuff right.
Good **** (4.1%) - Certainly not perfect, but the good far outweighs the bad. Could have been better, but not much.
“The Immunity Syndrome”
Fair *** (29.1%) – There’s just enough to hold interest, but there’s obviously room for improvement. A little more polish could have gone a long way.
“The Exiles”
“Journey To Where”
“One Moment Of Humanity”
“The AB Chrysallis”
“Dorzak”
“Devil’s Planet”
“The Dorcons”
Poor ** (25%) – There are some decent ideas here, but the overall execution is sloppy. These represent what I originally thought of the series overall and these episodes live down to the impression.
“Metamorph”
“The Taybor”
“New Adam, New Eve”
“Space Warp”
“Bringers Of Wonder” (Part 1)
“Bringers Of Wonder” (Part 2)
Bad * (41.8%) – These were just plain bad.
“All That Glitters”
“The Rules Of Luton”
“The Mark Of Archanon”
“Brian The Brain”
“Catacombs Of The Moon”
“Seed Of Destruction”
“The Beta Cloud”
“A Matter Of Balance”
“The Lambda Factor”
“The Seance Spectre”
This season is essentially a reverse of Season1. More than half the episodes of Season 1 were at least watchable and a good number of them Good to Excellent. But Season 2 is mostly a waste of time. Only a third of the second season episodes are worthwhile and the rest mostly take up screen time.
I might have found the first season's music questionable, but I flat out hate the second season's music. It just stank and often was wholly ill-suited to the stories. It seemed to taint the stories and made them seem even cheaper. A better soundtrack would have gone a long way and helped elevate some of the stories.
While there are a handful of acceptable stories in second season you could easily do without them. The first season works much better as a whole. I don't think the first season was great, but it was noteworthy and it displayed ambition even if I can question how they set about executing it.
I liked some of the model work, some of the ideas and I really liked that Helena Russell was given more to do. Candidly I don't think Maya and Tony Verdeschi brought anything of real value to the show, certainly not enough to offset all the stuff that I didn't like. I much preferred Bergman, but I can understand why the producers might have wanted a greater female presence in the main cast. While I liked seeing an expanded Moonbase with additional sections I didn't care for the revamped Main Mission. It was a bit more colourful, but it looked cramped and cheap in comparison to the first season set.
If I were revamping this for a relaunch or reboot I'd keep many of the same elements, but the whole Moon blasted out of orbit thing would have to be thoroughly rethought. I'd also push the time setting forward more to at least 2099. I probably wouldn't use the Moon but rather a large asteroid base further out in the solar system. And I'd find another mechanism for getting it on its way.
Good **** (4.1%) - Certainly not perfect, but the good far outweighs the bad. Could have been better, but not much.
“The Immunity Syndrome”
Fair *** (29.1%) – There’s just enough to hold interest, but there’s obviously room for improvement. A little more polish could have gone a long way.
“The Exiles”
“Journey To Where”
“One Moment Of Humanity”
“The AB Chrysallis”
“Dorzak”
“Devil’s Planet”
“The Dorcons”
Poor ** (25%) – There are some decent ideas here, but the overall execution is sloppy. These represent what I originally thought of the series overall and these episodes live down to the impression.
“Metamorph”
“The Taybor”
“New Adam, New Eve”
“Space Warp”
“Bringers Of Wonder” (Part 1)
“Bringers Of Wonder” (Part 2)
Bad * (41.8%) – These were just plain bad.
“All That Glitters”
“The Rules Of Luton”
“The Mark Of Archanon”
“Brian The Brain”
“Catacombs Of The Moon”
“Seed Of Destruction”
“The Beta Cloud”
“A Matter Of Balance”
“The Lambda Factor”
“The Seance Spectre”
This season is essentially a reverse of Season1. More than half the episodes of Season 1 were at least watchable and a good number of them Good to Excellent. But Season 2 is mostly a waste of time. Only a third of the second season episodes are worthwhile and the rest mostly take up screen time.
I might have found the first season's music questionable, but I flat out hate the second season's music. It just stank and often was wholly ill-suited to the stories. It seemed to taint the stories and made them seem even cheaper. A better soundtrack would have gone a long way and helped elevate some of the stories.
While there are a handful of acceptable stories in second season you could easily do without them. The first season works much better as a whole. I don't think the first season was great, but it was noteworthy and it displayed ambition even if I can question how they set about executing it.
I liked some of the model work, some of the ideas and I really liked that Helena Russell was given more to do. Candidly I don't think Maya and Tony Verdeschi brought anything of real value to the show, certainly not enough to offset all the stuff that I didn't like. I much preferred Bergman, but I can understand why the producers might have wanted a greater female presence in the main cast. While I liked seeing an expanded Moonbase with additional sections I didn't care for the revamped Main Mission. It was a bit more colourful, but it looked cramped and cheap in comparison to the first season set.
If I were revamping this for a relaunch or reboot I'd keep many of the same elements, but the whole Moon blasted out of orbit thing would have to be thoroughly rethought. I'd also push the time setting forward more to at least 2099. I probably wouldn't use the Moon but rather a large asteroid base further out in the solar system. And I'd find another mechanism for getting it on its way.
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Inspiration for that could be found in Moving Mars by Greg Bear. After that, it's just a question of them trying to find the right coordinates home.
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